study | Klaava Travel Guide ebooks and nonfiction

If you are planning to travel to Europe, but are concerned about the recent news on violence conducted by a radical group in some countries, an extensive study on the safety status of the world’s countries convinces that Europe still is the safest continent to travel. The thing with Europe is that although it is not as large as North America or Australia, it is divided into many countries that have different cultures, economic situations, politics and external relations. All this affects to the stability, and internal and external threats.

Iceland scenery by Moyan Brenn on flickr.

The Institute for Economics and Peace has published an annual report: the Global Peace Index. The Index is a measure of global peacefulness. It gauges on-going domestic and international conflict, safety and security in society, and the degree of militarisation in 163 countries and territories. The report takes into account 23 indicators in order to tally the Index. You can download the whole extensive report here. Here a the highlights from the report.

Europe was once again ranked the most peaceful region in the world. The largest improvement in safety since last year occurred in Central America and the Caribbean, while South America also made progress in its levels of peacefulness. Middle East and Africa had the largest safety decline, followed by Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and Asia Pacific respectively.

Top 40: the safest countries in the world according to the tenth edition of the Global Peace Index (the number after each country is its calculated safety index):

1 Iceland 1.192
2 Denmark 1.246
3 Austria 1.278
4 New Zealand 1.287
5 Portugal 1.356
6 Czech Republic 1.360
7 Switzerland 1.370
8 Canada 1.388
9 Japan 1.395
10 Slovenia 1.408
11 Finland 1.429
12 Ireland 1.433
13 Bhutan 1.445
14 Sweden 1.461
15 Australia 1.465
16 Germany 1.486
17 Norway 1.500
18 Belgium 1.528
19 Hungary 1.534
20 Singapore 1.535
21 Netherlands 1.541
22 Poland 1.557
23 Mauritius 1.559
24 Slovakia 1.603
25 Spain 1.604
26 Croatia 1.633
27 Chile 1.635
28 Botswana 1.639
29 Bulgaria 1.646
30 Malaysia 1.648
31 Romania 1.649
32 Latvia 1.680
33 Costa Rica 1.699
34 Qatar 1.716
35 Uruguay 1.726
36 Estonia 1.732
37 Lithuania 1.735
38 Madagascar 1.763
39 Italy 1.774
40 Zambia 1.783

A map shows the peaceful regions of the world for vacation-goers and digital nomads who are planning their next destination.

Peace Index map by Institute for Economics and Peace. Dark green: very high state of peace, turquoise: high, sand: medium, red: very low.

A few years ago, the University of Illinois conducted an experiment that was doomed to fail. University students received Apple iPad tablets with instructions to use them for their studies. The students didn’t get any other instructions, tools, or support. Yet, the experiment was a success.

The experiment was conducted in 2011, but reported in late 2014. Every student of the Master of Science program received an iPad from the school. Students were only told that they were supposed to use the tablets to study more effectively. No restrictions or locks were installed in tablets by the university. The university didn’t have any educational IT system integrated with tablets, but intranet was available just like for PCs.

The survey participants were 22—43 old students of the same Master of Science program.

The key conclusions in the report are as follows.
1. Students increased their communication with the lecturers and fellow students. The use of email, searching information from the intranet and downloading study material increased as well.

2. Tablets replaced pen and paper as the primary note taking method for majority of students. Assignments that required writing were still carried out on a laptop computer.

3. The students regarded tablets complementary to PCs.

When the experiment ended, 80% of the students said they have no problems with on-screen reading, and they rarely print material.

Tag Archives: study

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